A Touch of Color

For those of you that just want to know what I used to put this together, I will cut to the chase right away :o)

• Patterned Paper is from Die Cuts With a View
• Flourish is chipboard from Maya Road
• Butterfly cut with Cricut and Indie Art cartridge
• Black shape behind butterfly cut with Cricut and Wild Card cartridge
• Name cut with Cricut using Sure Cuts A Lot program and Oklahoma font
• Happy Happy Birthday stamp from Stamp Oasis
• Flourish stamps-most likely Inkadinkadoo-but not really sure.

Other items: Fired Brick and Black Soot Distress Inks, red eyelets and Dew Drops on Butterfly body.

Now, if you are interested in the story behind the card, read on. :o)

I made this card for a good friend of mine for her birthday. This idea rolled through my head about 3:00 A.M. one morning. I think it was after a bunch of us girls got together for "card club"(the Hallmark Knock-Offs...we are all card makers and get together to make cards once a month) and one of the cards we made had a great butterfly image cut out and then attached to the card right over a stamped flourish. I loved the look of it! So, at 3:00 A.M. I'm thinking about all my flourish stamps, and I have a lot...but then thought about some pre-cut chipboard flourishes I had in a tin from Maya Road. My brains started rattling around and wondering what kinds of papers could I use?? What do I have?

UP and out of bed and down to The Room I went. LOL! I found these great black and white patterned papers from Die Cuts With A View and thought they would be perfect. I gathered my paper and my chipboard flourish up, checked through my Cricut cartridges to see which butterfly I wanted to use and got everything ready to go. Aahhh, I could go back to bed and fall asleep peacefully.

The next morning (like "normal" morning for most) I got up and put the card together and really liked how it turned out. I just love that splash of red with all of the black and white.

I used the Fired Brick Distress ink to give color to the chipboard flourish. I just used the Tim Holtz blending tool to smoosh it onto the chipboard. It worked great. I used glue dots to hold all the "elements" on...but the papers were adhered with double sided tape, the Glue Glider Pro to be exact.

I just want to shout out a Thank You to Lori from card club for the inspiration for this card!! If it weren't for her great butterfly card, this would have never kept me up at night! LOL! I love the inspiration I get from others, and our little group of gals are a great place to find it...thanks to all of you for always sharing such wonderful ideas...and great desserts. :o)

Cherry Pie Challenge

Remember the new Cherry Pie Art Stamps I got for my birthday from my friend Bibi? You can see the sheet/plate of rubber HERE. I also got a few more of the phrases that they made because I just love how artsy they look.

Bibi also had this set of stamps and she challenged me to make a card with them using a card sketch from the June issue of Page Maps. This is the sketch we decided on. (she made me choose, and she agreed :o)

This is the front of Bibi's card. I loved the colors she used. They aren't colors I ever think to use together. I know red and green are opposite each other on the color wheel and so are complimentary colors...but...when I go to use them, I always think Christmas.

This card doesn't look Christmasy to me at all. The colors are very comfy together and I love them! The red is more of a raspberry color and the green is an olive green. They really do compliment each other! She is such a genius.

Bibi went above and beyond and did an awesome job of making the inside just as fun as the outside. I love all the color and texture she used!

She even decorated the BACK! I have done insides a time or two...but never the back...how fun is that?!

I love her signature...and if you click on the photo, you can see the inky little fingertips on the hand. So creative! I love that it's 1/1 and she even has the date. Beebs didn't leave off one detail on this one.

Here is my challenge card. I thought it was interesting that our color choices were so similar. We hadn't discussed anything outside of the card sketch and the stamp set because we wanted to see each other's take on it. But we have a lot of crazy similarities like that, it's fun, and it's what makes us such great friends.

I used rust card stock and Pesto Adirondak ink on my card. Did a little smooshing as you can see. :o) I had some ribbon, even some ric rac I could have used above and below the sentiment...but that seemed a little dull...so I tore strips and sent them through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder, and used brads to hold them on. I altered the image I used on the top of the tag by tearing a piece of paper and lining the edges of the tag with the torn parts and then stamped the woman's head upside down, in between the torn edges of the paper. So this isn't a full image. I just wanted that great pattern from her hair.

I think I may have done something on the inside of the card, but didn't think to take a picture of it before I sent the card off.

This challenge was fun, and we plan to do it again. We'll keep you posted!

Distressed Tags from SD class

I had the very good fortune to be in Rapid City, SD the very same weekend Altered Art & Scrap Playground was having this great class teaching how to make Christmas tags Tim Holtz style!

I had lots of fun and learned a lot. Thanks Cathy for having the class and thanks Ricky for being such a fun teacher! These tags were made with Ranger's Distress inks, Tim Holtz stamps, and Ranger's Inkssentials blending tool and some water.

This was my first experience using the blending tool. I have been smooshing my ink with Ranger's Cut 'n Dry felt pads. The blending tool (aka the smoosher) has a foam applicator and I really like the way it blends ink.

I also really love Tim Holtz's stamps. They are just awesome!

We did 4 tags in the class and then ran out of time...but we had 10 tags to play with. So when I had a chance at home, I played some more. LOOOVE making these tags!! I didn't want to get too carried away and have too many Christmas tags, so I pulled out my two latest stamp purchases...Birds Galore and Antique Floral (which I think is going to be an all time favorite). Both are The Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby.

Here are the fronts. I did a lot of smooshing and spritzing on these. Lots of fun to make. I had a "happy accident" on the orange one. I wanted to make the "ghost" images we made in class using just a touch of embossing ink on our stamp and then spritzing with water. I didn't have such great luck with the embossing ink. I think I was a little heavy handed with the ink and it kept me from getting very good results. So, I tried it with just water, no embossing ink. It too much water and my leaf impression looked a little more like a puddle. I wanted more definition, so I inked it up with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, stamped off on a scrap and then lined it up with the white puddle on my tag and re-stamped it. (One of the reasons I ADORE clear stamps!) I loved the way it turned out. I actually loved the way they all turned out. You should be able to click on the photos and get a better view of them.

Here are the backs. Can you see the white stamped images on the one on the left? That is stamping with water. You really have to be careful not to get too much water, or you will end up with a puddle. What I found to work really well for me was to spritz water on my non-stick craft sheet (also from Ranger) and pretend it was an ink pad, tapping my stamp into the water droplets. I would stamp it off on a paper scrap before I would stamp it on my inked tag.

I really, really do love this look. The ghostly images along with tons of smooshing and aging the edges are just my style and so much fun to do!

If I were stranded on a deserted island.....

On a rubber stamping email list I am on, RST! (Rubber Stamping Together) we have discussed what 3 stamping things we would take or would have to have. While making these cards, I realized how very versatile and amazing 3 of my tools are. I realized with my Ranger Distress Inks, Cuttlebug and Cricut I could make tons of great stuff. I am pretty sure they would be the first things that go with me!

I really loved the colors from the star card in my last post, but I didn't have any more of that background paper. I decided to try and recreate it with my Distress Inks. I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Fired Brick..and I smooshed. :o) I actually started with a piece of colored card stock, it was a darker gold color. I smooshed the Mustard seed first...pretty random and using a Cut 'n Dry felt pad (Ranger). Then I added the Spiced Marmalade, also very random, then topped it off with the Fired Brick. Some people may get hung up on trying to make those colors look perfect, I know I used to. But the key is to just smoosh...don't worry about what it looks like right now...once you add stamps and/or embossing, they will blend those sharp edges and make the colors flow. I was amazed at how I was able to recreate that background so easily. That would be one reason why they are in my top 3. The other reasons are because they can be used with embossing powders, they blend amazingly, they do great and wondrous things when water is added to them (you will see in another post coming soon) and I love the way they can bring out the dry embossing from an embossing folder or age the edges of a piece so wonderfully.
Once I made the background, I used the Leafy Branch embossing folder to emboss. (I love leaves!) I grabbed my Walnut Stain and Black Soot Distressing inks to make the embossing pop and age the edges. I am still in love with my new Cherry Pie stamps so I used that for the phrase. I matted everything with black. Then I was stuck. I couldn't decide if I wanted to embellish it with the Dew Drops or with this great leaf from the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge.

Since I had such a hard time deciding, I decided to do both!

I did the dew drops on the first one and then added the black leaf on the other. I had purchased a set of pretty bird stamps at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, and decided that would be a great match with the Leafy Branch for the second card. The stamp is from the Birds Galore set from The Paper Studio. Of course I had to age all the edges because I love that look.

I love all the space on the first one, but think that bird is a better fit with the Leafy Branch. I also think I would want to make that bird piece a little smaller and then see if I could fit the Dew Drops in somewhere just for a punch of fun.

I love creating with my Distress Inks, Cricut and Cuttlebug. The possibilities are just endless!

It started innocently enough...

...with a purchase from HSN (Home Shopping Network).

11 brand new embossing folders for my Cuttlebug. They looked so fun! I took them to The Room and started to crank each one out with a piece of solid blue card stock. Yes, they looked cool...but some seemed to beg for a little pizazz. My trusty box of backgrounds was nearby, so I pulled what I thought was a major wreck of a background (too much red and not very good blending of colors) and ran it through the star embossing folder.

I fell in love instantly!

But I wanted my stars to stand out a little more, so I grabbed for my Distress Inks. Walnut Stain is the one I decided on first. I used a felt Cut 'n Dray pad (I cut them in squares about 1.5 x 1.5 inches) to just skim the tops of the embossed stars. I added a little extra color around the edges. I wanted just a bit more definition, so I added some Black Soot Distress Ink just around the edges. I really loved how it turned out...I actually squealed when I finished with the background.

I loved the stars, and wanted to do something fun with the background. I added a fun star image from the Indie Art Cricut cartridge for embellishment. I used another piece of that same background paper to cut the star and then used the shadow feature to cut the black matted layer. I also had just received some great stamps for my birthday from my friend Bibi in Norway...from Cherry Pie Art Stamps (Thanks Bibi!!) and I just love how they do their words and phrases. The "believe" phrase seemed to fit perfectly.

I really love how the card turned out...those colors and the way it is aged around the edges are just yummy to me. It makes my muse say "aaahhhhh". :o)